Charges say Yesway worker stole lottery tickets

The former assistant manager of a convenience store in Fort Dodge is facing felony charges after he allegedly stole lottery tickets and redeemed them.

Christopher A. Bryefogle, 31, of Fort Dodge, is charged with two counts of first-degree theft and one count of theft of lottery tickets.

All three charges are felonies.

The alleged thefts occurred between July 19, 2016, and mid-August 2016 when Bryefogle was the assistant manager at Yesway, 115 N. 22nd St.

According to the criminal complaint, filed with the Webster County attorney’s office, in August 2016 an Iowa Lottery official spotted Bryefogle redeeming large amounts of scratch-off Iowa Lottery tickets at a local retailer.

The district manager then conducted an audit of the Iowa Lottery items, where it was discovered that Yesway was short more than $12,430 in Iowa Lottery scratch-off tickets.

It’s alleged that Bryefogle scanned each lottery ticket from 23 packs of tickets, which were worth $6,900, at multiple Hy-Vee locations on various dates.

Prior to July 19, 2016, Yesway had been a Kum & Go store, but had been bought by Yesway.

According to the complaint, Yesway was supposed to return unsold lottery tickets from Kum & Go to the Iowa Lottery, which would then replace them with Yesway lottery tickets.

Bryefogle made his initial appearance in Webster County Magistrate Court Tuesday morning.